Letter to All Ontario Federal Election 2006 Candidates


Ontario's 7 Grain and Oilseed organizations represent the interests of Ontario's field crop sector which:

* Produced field crops worth $3.6 billion in farm gate sales in 2004
* Is the largest field crop sector of any Canadian province
* On Ontario's total cropland of 3.6 million hectares, 85,000 farm operators devoted 2.4 million hectares to the major field crops
* Ontario's field crop sector is the foundation for much of the rest of agriculture and the rural economy providing feed for livestock, feedstock for further food and industrial processing, as well as products for direct human consumption.

Financial Crisis

The Ontario grain and oilseed sector is in serious financial difficulty caused by factors beyond an individual farmer's ability to control, specifically foreign market interference and in particular 20 years of U.S. Farm Bill agricultural subsidies which artificially depress prices for the commodities we produce.

Results of the Current Agricultural Policy Environment in Canada

Operating under a Canadian agricultural policy environment totally different than the US Farm Bill has produced dramatically different results. Not being covered by the US Farm Bill has meant:

* " In 2003-2005 while US agriculture enjoyed its best three years in a decade, the same years will be the three worst years of Canadian Realized Farm Net Income in recorded history;
* " In the decade 1993-2003, Canadian farm debt doubled to $47.7 billion and average Realized Net Farm Income fell 5% every year;
* " While per farm income in the US in 2004 was Cdn$ 43,178, per farm Net Cash Income in Canada was Cdn$24,606.
* " While average per farm debt in the US in 2003 was Cdn$113,402, average per farm debt in Canada in 2003 was Cdn$199,024.
* " Since the introduction of the 1995/96 US Farm Bill, Canadian agricultural exports have continued to expand sharply, but Canadian net farm income from the marketplace has plummeted to record lows and has been negative five of the last six years.

Such statistics demonstrate that the agricultural policy environment in Canada has failed. Exporting more volume at artificially depressed prices has not resulted in profitability at the farm level.

Such statistics demonstrate vividly that the single biggest issue in Canadian farm policy must be dealing with the negative impact of US farm policy.

Such statistics demonstrate vividly that changes are desperately needed in Canadian farm policy. Ontario farmers have developed the solution, our Risk Management Program. We need your help to get it implemented.

Our Solution

Grain and oilseed producers need assistance to address three risks beyond their individual ability to manage:

* production risk,
* income stabilization, and
* financial injury resulting from foreign market interference.

Both levels of government now agree that while Production Insurance addresses the first risk, and the existing Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization program may partially address the second, neither program addresses the financial injury to Canadian grain and oilseed producers caused by foreign subsidies and tariffs. Contemplated CAIS modifications cannot adequately resolve the issue either. Therefore, in addition to CAIS and PI, additional assistance to grain and oilseed producers is required until WTO agreements actually eliminate such injury.

We have therefore proposed that:

* " Injury caused by foreign subsidies and tariffs be calculated annually for each Canadian grain and oilseed commodity;
* " Funding equivalent to offset this calculated injury be distributed from the Federal government to individual provinces based on this calculation and provincial production of each commodity;
* " This combined Federal/Provincial injury funding be paid to grain and oilseed producers in each province in a manner determined as most suitable by the individual provinces.

In Ontario, our Risk Management Program is the solution.

To meet the needs of Ontario field crop farmers, Ontario farmers developed our Risk Management Program to make CAIS work more effectively for our sector. We propose that Federal funding allocated to Ontario as above would be used in Ontario, along with new provincial funding, to finance our RMP.

If you are elected as an Ontario Member of Parliament, will you commit yourself and your Party to implement our fully funded Risk Management Program in Ontario?